Leaf Air Organization
Leaf Air LLC has been in operation since 2001 providing Air Tour/Scenic flights and flight instruction. The operation consists of three aircraft and less than 5 personnel. The Air Tour/Scenic Flights are operated under 91.147 with a Letter of Authorization.
E. James Barrett is the owner of Leaf Air, LLC and Accountable Executive for the purposes of 14 CFR Part 5. Mr. Barrett is the principal pilot for Air Tours provided by Leaf Air.
Other Personnel:
Melodie Viele, CFI-I will operate as the SMS support staff to assist in updating the SMS manual as needed and to track scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance, reporting to the Accountable Executive. She also serves as a flight instructor and pilot for Air Tour operations.
Chris Abrams, CFI-I, serves as a flight instructor and pilot for Air Tour operations.
All personnel acting as Air Tour pilots are subject to an FAA random Drug Testing Program.
External Interfaces
As part of daily operations, Leaf Air LLC works with Rich Air, LLC, (FBO at KGFL) for maintenance, fuel and hangar/tiedown services. The SMS will be shared with Steve Abbott, Manager, Rich Air. Personnel involved in maintenance of Leaf Air aircraft are part of the Drug Testing Program.
SMS Definitions
5.1(c) Leaf Air, LLC holds a Letter of Authorization issued under 91.147.
5.3 Definitions
The following terms are used in the SMS program.
Accountable Executive is the final authority over operations authorized to be conducted under the LOA. This includes planning, organizing, directing and controlling the personnel and organizational structure. Keeps an open line of communication with employees/independent contract pilots and outside resources to determine that safety issues are effectively communicated. He/she will review the SMS to determine the effectiveness of the program, and any changes needed. Provide sufficient financial resources for the operations to be conducted under the certificate/LOA and for the SMS to function properly.
Hazard means a condition or an object that could foreseeably cause or contribute to an incident or aircraft accident as defined in 49 CFR 883.02.
Risk means the composite of predicted severity and likelihood of the potential effect of a hazard.
Risk control means a way to reduce or eliminate the effects of the hazards.
Safety assurance means processes within the SMS that function systematically to ensure the performance and effectiveness of safety risk controls and that the organization meets or exceeds its safety objectives through the collection, analysis, and assessment of information.
Safety Management System (SMS) means the formal, top-down, organization-wide approach to managing safety risks and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk controls. It includes systematic procedures, practices and policies for the management of safety risk.
Safety objective means a measurable goal or desirable outcome related to safety.
Safety performance means realized or actual safety accomplishment relative to the organization’s safety objectives.
Safety policy means the person’s documented commitment to safety, which defines its safety objectives and the accountabilities and responsibilities of its employees in regards to safety.
Safety promotion means a combination of training and communication of safety information to support the implementation and operation of an SMS in an organization.
Safety Risk Management means the process within the SMS composed of describing the system, identifying the hazards, and analyzing, assessing and controlling risk.
SMS Documentation
The Accountable Executive will fulfill the role of the Safety Manager. All safety events, issues or hazards should be reported to Jim Barrett by email (Jim@leafair.net), telephone/text (518-415-8453) or verbally, they will all be documented and assessed as shown in Part 5.
The following objectives have been determined to be important to ensure safety is maintained in the organization. The company put the highest priority on the safety of our customers, pilots and aircraft. The accountable executive will monitor the following:
- Compliance with Regulation: Management, employees, independent contract pilots will comply with all applicable FAA regulations.
- Hazard/Incident reporting: employees/independent contract pilots will report any hazards, safety risks or incidents related to operations without fear of reprisal.
Reported safety issues will be documented on the Safety Report Form (Form #2) and the Accountable Executive will address all issues and document action taken. These forms will be kept in the SMS folder.
The Hazard Log (Form #1) will be updated and reviewed on a monthly basis and the updated version will be posted on the Safety Program page on our website. All staff should review the Hazard Log and provide feedback if they have any issues with the content or feel something is missing.
Safety Risk Management
While the goal is to have zero safety related incidents, reporting and tracking of potential issues will increase the overall safety goals.
All members of the organization are expected and encouraged to report any type of discrepancies or safety issues to the accountable executive and/or safety administrative staff. The Safety Report Form (Form 2) should be used if a safety issue has been identified to prevent the issue from occurring in the future and to mitigate risk.
Mandatory reports will include:
- hard landings.
- Problems with avionics components (GPS, radio, battery backup)
- Pilot deviations
- Maintenance-expired inspections, logbook errors
- Issues requiring maintenance repair or evaluation.
- Weather related incidents
- Weight and balance paperwork or logbook errors
The Accountable Executive will review the information and follow up with all staff regarding any changes that need to be made.
Unacceptable Behaviors
To ensure the safety of our customers, pilots and the general public, behavior that is contrary to the promotion of safety will not be tolerated. Activities involving intentional disregard of FAA regulations and company policies and procedures, illegal activities and or drug or alcohol may be subject to disciplinary action including dismissal and reporting of activities to proper authorities.
Examples of such behavior may include:
- Failure to ensure passengers remain seated and properly secured during the flight.
- Loading or unloading of passengers with engine operating.
- Operating in IFR or other hazardous weather conditions.
- Failure to report aircraft damage sustained during their operation of the aircraft.
- Willful disregard of FARs
The Accountable Executive will review information regarding any such incident including interviewing those involved. He/she will then determine if disciplinary action, including termination, is warranted.
Investigating Safety Issues
Investigations should be documented and the outcomes added to the Hazard Log. The following is an approach that can be used during investigation:
- What happened, when and where?
- What is the impact on the organization?
- What were the conditions and actions that led to the safety issue?
- Who was involved?
Examine all the facts and determine what happened and why. Assess whether this event or some similar has happened before. Identify contributory factors such as: job factors, Human factors, Organizational factors, Equipment factors.
Risk Management Review and Management of Change
The need for a Risk Management process review/update (Form #3) will be triggered by the addition of new systems, aircraft, procedures or changes of outside organizations used for maintenance or services and changes of management within Leaf Air. In addition all events and reported issues will be assessed for severity and likelihood using the following risk acceptability matrix. To use the matrix, consider the severity of consequences multiplied by the likelihood of occurrence for each event or report.
| Severity of Consequences | ||
| Definition | Meaning | Value |
| Fatal Accident | Results in a serious accident or incident with fatalities. | 5 |
| Serious Incident | Results in a serious incident (without fatalities) that would be reportable to FAA/NTSB | 3 |
| Negligible | Results in minor incident that would not be reportable to the FAA/NTSB | 1 |
| Likelihood of Occurrence | ||
| Qualitative Definition | Meaning | Value |
| Likely | Likely to reoccur or to occur several times in a year | 3 |
| Possible | Possibly reoccur or to occur at least once a year | 2 |
| Unlikely | Very unlikely to reoccur or occur | 1 |
Risk Acceptability Matrix
| Unlikely (1) | Possible (2) | Likely (3) | |
| Severity Fatal Accident (5) | REVIEW (5) | UNACCEPTABLE (10) | UNACCEPTABLE (10) |
| Serious Incident (3) | REVIEW (3) | REVIEW (3) | UNACCEPTABLE (10) |
| Negligible (1) | ACCEPTABLE (1) | ACCEPTABLE (1) | REVIEW (3) |
Risk Acceptance Actions
Actions will be prioritized by the score from the Risk Acceptability Matrix but the following table will determine the appropriate action to be taken.
| Unacceptable | Risk intolerable, Account Executive immediately informed and action must be taken to reduce the risk to a tolerable level. |
| Review | Risk reduction/mitigation must be considered. Where risk reduction / mitigation is not practical or viable acceptance by Accountable Executive is required. |
| Acceptable | Risk is considered acceptable but would be reviewed if it reoccurs. |
Safety Assurance
A number of Safety Performance Indicators have been established to track the effectiveness of the SMS. These include the number of safety meetings held, major risk incidents per 50 flights, reports received and so forth. The SPI (Form #4) will be used to monitor our safety performance and help us strive for continuous improvement. These will be reviewed with all staff annually.
Service providers and other organizations
Leaf Air will work closely with Rich Air, LLC (FBO) for services they provide to ensure risk is managed between organizations. This includes fueling, towing, tie-down/hangar and maintenance. Rich Air employees are encouraged to alert the Accountable Executive to any hazards and occurrences they may observe. They are also encouraged to alert Leaf Air to problems encountered by other customers operating the same type of aircraft. Maintenance personnel involved with Leaf Air aircraft will be part of the Random Drug Testing Program. If a safety issue is noted with the outside provider, the Accountable Executive will bring this to the attention of the organization by email or text and follow through with the facility manager.
Safety Promotion
The SMS will be available to all employees and independent contract pilots on the Leaf Air LLC website under the Safety Policy tab.
The Accountable Executive will review the SMS program with all new hires prior to their first revenue flight with the company. The Accountable Executive will review the policy with all employees and outside contractors at least annually to ensure it remains relevant and appropriate. All staff must read and understand the SMS Manual and sign the Training Record.
Training will include the importance of the SMS, individual responsibility for safety, SMS policy and process and Safety reporting. New policies and procedures or identified reported hazards will be discussed with all staff as soon as practicable after implementation or investigation. Reported hazards will be discussed with all staff for input on the best way to mitigate risk.
Before a pilot may operate as PIC of a flight conducted under the LOA, they will receive a thorough checkout in the aircraft by E. James Barrett (owner/Accountable Executive/chief pilot). This will include normal and emergency procedures, review of the SMS documents, expectations of conduct and customer service.
All pilots will receive training on new equipment/avionics installed in the aircraft prior to acting as PIC on revenue flights.
Emergency Plan
As part of normal procedure, all flights will be shown on in-house scheduling software. Aircraft are equipped with ADS-B in/out which will be operational for every flight. Air Tours generally take a standard route and can be tracked using software.
In the event of an on airport or state/national emergency, operations will cease and all aircraft grounded until the emergency has been resolved. In the event of an overdue aircraft, ADS-B tracking will be reviewed and an effort will be made to contact the crewmember directly. If contact is not made, FAA and emergency services will be contacted within 30 minutes to initiate search and rescue procedures. If the accountable executive is not immediately available, the safety admin. will be responsible to ensure the appropriate actions are taken and reported to the accountable executive.